Mas Joko!!!

It's history as Djokovic took on the Australian Open championship on Jan 27 2008. It's his first Grand Slam title and it'll be the start for many titles to come. With a forehand like that and the bonus attitude, he'll be on center stage many times, both on the court and off. I'm really happy that he beat Federer on the semis; I just think that we need a new star other than Federer. Federer has been on his own league for too long.

And let's just admit it, Djokovic is hillarious!! His impersonations are perfect. Too funny!! LOL.. And of course, on top of being funny, talented, and rich, he's just soo cute!! Hahaha.. too good to be true?

Going Greeeeeeeen

I found several interesting sites on the Internet that encourage the society to get involved in protecting our world. In other words, get us excited about going green. This idea of going green, recycling, saving energy, etc, has been going around for quite some time. And I think people are trying out new ways to still promote it. I used to be really into going green (was in a green club and highly considered environmental engineering at one point), but I guess my excitement and idealism sort of wear off as time goes by. So, now I do care about depleting resources or the ever increasing pollution rate, but I dare not say I am an ardent enthusiast (well, I'm probably one or two levels below) :P

Anyways, let me just share with you those interesting sites that I found.

1. The Story of Stuff

It tells you where you things come from, who or what are exploited in order to produce your stuff, and what problems arise because of production of your stuff. The main attraction of the site is the 21 minutes video that explains all the above in an interesting presentation by Annie Leoward.
Annie is currently coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption . 21 minutes may sound long, but I actually hold on to the last minute thanks to the cute animations and the way Annie explains things. She lowers her language to suit us, the common people, yet respects us enough to throw in some jargons. Try watching the video, it's not a waste of time; a lot better than watching a random YouTube video.

2. Urban Renewal
A site that posts T-shirt re-designs by Mari, a recent graduate fine arts cultural studies program at York University at Toronto, Canada. It is her way of recycling old over sized plain T-shirts into stylish clothes. I wished I could be as creative and as crafty so that I can follow suit her way of recycling. For me, I'll just stick to sorting out paper and plastic trash to be thrown out to recycling bins, but for crafty people out there, go get some inspiration from her re-designs! They are amazing!

3. Re-generation

Just for fun, go to the site and enter in a sentence or two on what does green mean to you. Watch the answers of people from around the globe flashing on your upper screen. Once you've entered your answer, you can see your answer flashing, too!! And it'll be seen by those who visit the site. I got excited seeing my answer flashed, but then was a little bumped out cause it did not show up again eventhough I waited for some time. The site is sponsored by Dell, and I think it's run from Austin.

Let's do something green today!!!

Last Moments in Indonesia

Yeah yeah, I know I am supposed to finish packing and look for LAX map so that I won't get lost when I arrive there, but the temptation to blog is just to big to resist. I have been enjoying holiday so far and planning to enjoy the last 2 days in Indonesia; holiday has been great. I met friends, family members, and to be honest things have not changed much. With some of them, I feel like all this while we have not been separated by distance and that huge wall of air. It is as if I have been seeing them everyday and our meet up is just one of the days, while the fact is: I last saw you two years ago and will see you in a year if we are lucky enough. It's still the same warm smiles and laughter, things just don't change much anymore and I'm somehow thankful of that.

I got here on 18th of Jan and landed on Jakarta, the city of crazy drivers. I got a little of culture shock seeing that traffic signs don't get as much respect as they do in US. I muffled my cries as my taxi got close to 2 cm away from the car on the right and as a motorcycle drove over the road partition that separates the main road from the bus-way road. It's true when people say if you can drive in Jakarta, you'll be able to drive anywhere else in the world. It took quite a while to reach my uncle's apartment in Kelapa Gading, but after several skilled maneuvers to dodge close encounters of traffic accidents, I was finally there. Weirdly enough, amidst the chaos of traffic and the striking stuffiness due to pollution, I felt truly at home.

And now I really have to gather all my stuff to bring back to Austin. Haha I chat too much that I took like 2 hours just to write these 3 paragraphs. I haven't found out how to go to the next terminal in LAX. I'm just hoping for a pleasant trip back to Austin, no delays, no missing of flights, nice movies on board, empty seat beside me, good-looking flight attendants and a safe trip.

I'll be back in a year!!!